The Lagos State Government has begun an investigation into traders in the state repackaging and selling chickens killed by rodents after an investigative report by PUNCH Healthwise spotlighted the deadly practice.

A Deputy Director, in the state’s Ministry of Agriculture, Dr Mary Ogunleye, disclosed this when she reached out to the PUNCH Healthwise for more information about the report.

Ogunleye, who is the state’s Chief Veterinary Epidemiologist, said the Ministry of Agriculture was investigating the incident in collaboration with other stakeholders to protect the lives of the residents and sanction the erring traders.

She said, “I am calling concerning a story titled, ‘Cheap poison: How Lagos traders repackage, sell dead chickens after rodent attacks’ published by PUNCH Healthwise on Sunday, August 11, 2024. Now, I want to know the markets and their exact locations.

“Can you give us the names of the exact markets doing that to help our investigation? We are investigating the matter. We need to know the exact location and where we are going, and target our investigation towards that.”

PUNCH Healthwise in an investigative report titled, ‘Cheap poison: How Lagos traders repackage and sell dead chickens after rodent attacks’, exposed how traders (bird sellers) battling rodent attacks repackage and sell dead chickens to unsuspecting residents.
The report was published on Sunday, August 11, 2024.https://healthwise.punchng.com/cheap-poison-how-lagos-traders-repackage-sell-dead-chickens-after-rodent-attacks/

The report also revealed that the dead chickens were sold by traders to vulnerable residents who could not afford live chickens following the harsh economic situation.

The story further chronicled how the use of wooden cages in Lagos bird markets exposed the fowls to rodent attacks and the traders in order not to incur financial loss sold chickens that could not survive the attack to the residents.

The traders lament that the use of wooden cages exposes their chickens to daily rodent attacks which in many cases leave some of them with severe injury and others dead.

The sale of such chickens, public health physicians and epidemiologists say posed a potential risk for a Lassa fever outbreak in the state as the infected rats could transmit the virus to the affected chickens being sold for human consumption.

Continuing, Ogunleye also told our correspondent that the findings of the government’s investigation would be made available to PUNCH Healthwise when it is concluded.

“We have commenced an investigation and once we are done with it, we will draw the conclusion, and let you know what we discovered.

“The Veterinary Department of the Ministry of Agriculture is on the field at the moment. We will tell you our findings. Give us till next week; we will get back to you. We have to reach out to other stakeholders on it and be sure that they are available.

“You know that these markets are in different locations and doing this investigation will not be done in a day. It is not something you can finish in one day. But by next week, we will get back to you.”

On the issue of access to modern cages, she noted that the Lagos State Government continued to empower livestock farmers and bird sellers with the cages.

Ogunleye, however, noted that the state government does not give the individual farmers modern cages but through their association and cooperative societies.

“The problem is that the state does not give individual farmers and bird sellers cages. So, it is a trader that has to change to the modern way.

“The state government will give to the cooperative and not individuals. They have their association. The government gives the cages to the associations and not individuals.

“The battery cages will not be given to them individually. The old ones have to be phased out. Wooden cages are old methods. They have to be phased out. They (farmers) have to invest in themselves,” she said.